Fighting For The Angels

"If my understanding of predestination is not correct, then my sin is compounded, since I would be slandering the saints who by opposing my view are fighting for the angels." (RC Sproul, Chosen by God, pg. 14)

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John Wesley

"Answer all [the Calvinists'] objections, as occasion offers, both in public and private. But take care to do this with all possible sweetness both of look and of accent...Make it a matter of constant and earnest prayer, that God would stop the plague."

God’s Sovereignty

"God sovereignly decreed that man should be free to exercise moral choice, and man from the beginning has fulfilled that decree by making his choice between good and evil. When he chooses to do evil, he does not thereby countervail the sovereign will of God but fulfills it, inasmuch as the eternal decree decided not which choice the man should make but that he should be free to make it. If in His absolute freedom God has willed to give man limited freedom, who is there to stay His hand or say, 'What doest thou?' Man’s will is free because God is sovereign. A God less than sovereign could not bestow moral freedom upon His creatures. He would be afraid to do so." A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy: The Attributes of God

James Arminius

"Besides, even true and living faith in Christ precedes regeneration strictly taken, and consisting of the mortification or death of the old man, and the vivification of the new man...For Christ becomes ours by faith, and we are engrafted into Christ, are made members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones, and, being thus planted with him, we coalesce or are united together, that we may draw from him the vivifying power of the Holy Spirit, by which power the old man is mortified and we rise again into a new life." [Works Vol.2 pg. 233, Wesleyan Heritage Collection].

I have noticed that many visitors have been clicking links that lead to articles or posts at The Society of Evangelical Arminians website. It should be noted that the site has recently moved and is still under construction. For this reason, many of those links are not presently working, though they will be eventually. The posts and articles have not gone anywhere, they are just temporarily unavailable. Sorry for any inconvenience or frustration this may have caused. Hopefully, all links to posts and articles will be restored soon.

The Assemblies of God position paper on The Security of the Believer stands against the unconditional eternal security position and affirms the possiblity of apostasy from saving faith in Christ. Strangely, the paper claims that it takes a position between the two “extremes” of Calvinism and Arminianism,

In the matter of the security of the believer, The General Council of the Assemblies of God stands between the extreme positions of Calvinism and Arminianism. It accepts the scriptural elements found in both teachings.

The Calvinist stresses, rightly, God’s sovereignty and divine prerogative, while the Arminian stresses, also rightly, man’s free will and responsibility. The two positions, however, must be considered together if they are to be properly understood. The General Council of the Assemblies of God believes in the sovereignty and divine prerogative of God untainted by arbitrariness or caprice. It also believes in the free will and responsibility of man.

However, as one reads this quote and the paper as a whole, it becomes clear that it is nothing less than an accurate description of the Classical five point Arminian position on apostasy. It seems that the AG, along with so many others, did not fully understand the Arminian position on apostasy at the time the paper was written, perhaps confusing Arminianism with certain forms of Wesleyanism.

Thankfully, sites like SEA are going a long way towards clearing up misconceptions about Arminianism and helping many who thought they held some middle ground between Arminianism and Calvinism to realize that the middle ground they thought they held was actually fully Arminian. If you are not sure about what Arminianism actually entails, you might want to start by taking this short little assessment at SEA:

A member of the Society of Evangelical Arminians SEA with the screen name of “Arminian” (Blogger and in the past sometimes WordPress) and “arminian1” (now WordPress) has been debating with Calvinist scholar James Anderson, who teaches at Reformed Theological Seminary, over whether petitionary prayer can rightly be called a cause of God’s answers to prayer or some of God’s decisions about how to answer prayer. “Arminian” has posted his most recent response to Anderson at the SEA site (“Exposing Calvinist ‘Forgery’in the Paper Trail of Prophesied Prayers”), which does not allow comments. So this post will serve to host comments on Arminian’s post.

Just want to alert everyone to a new website and blog called SEA (Society of Evangelical Arminians). The site officially launched today and will slowly grow as an excellent resource for Arminian Theology. It has numerous contributers, many of whom are first rate scholars. If nothing is up right away, please be patient and keep checking back.